Adventures in craftiness and parenting. Not necessarily in that order.

November 26, 2008

Burple*

One of the things I love about knitting is how I feel like it does have a higher power. I mean, not as high as say, whiskey or a shirtless Ray Stevenson, but I feel like knitting allows me to make the world what I wish it was. Lofty of me, I know, but wouldn't it be amazing if every baby was greeted with a handmade gift? Would that make the world a better place? Couldn't the wee one feel that handiwork? I don't know if I'm convinced, but I'd like to think so.

One of the generosities that really stands out from when Junior was born was two of Mr. Pinks friends buying some preemie clothes for Junior so that he would have some clothes that fit him right away. It was so thoughtful, and though some people might thing it was small, I will always remember it (and yes, both friends have had babies that were welcomed with handknits- one of whom received the 2 raglans).

A separate friend of Mr. Pink's welcomed a little girl about three weeks ago, having made her entrance about a month early (I don't blame her- I want to experience the full holiday season too!) and I knew what I wanted to do- make some preemie clothes for her. I found this dress pattern (opens to .pdf) via Ravelry and altered it a little bit to suit her (she's a Californian)- short sleeves and made with cotton, as well as ease of knitting (made in the round).

I'm really happy with how it turned out- if only I could say the same for the accompanying sweater. I decided to jump headlong into the infamous February Baby Sweater, and instead of modifying the pattern to fit a preemie, I decided to go with the pattern as written and knit it with fingering weight (as opposed to the worsted it calls for) and smaller needles.

While the end result isn't awful, it just wasn't what I was hoping for. Which I deserve, I suppose, with such poor planning, but I just felt like the proportions were off. If I were to do it again (which why I chose to knit two baby garments out of fingering can I guess be chalked up to estrogen driven delirium), I would cast on extra stitches at the underarm- maybe as many as 10 extra. I think it would work alright with that. With baby knitting, I feel the constant soundtrack of Final Jeopardy playing in the background, the baby adding ounces with each row I finish. Which is my meager excuse for not ripping and reknitting.

At the very least, hopefully baby Maya will receive these by Friday and have a kicky little outfit to wear for the Black Friday sales.

*You didn't think that I would re-enter blogland without some ridiculous portmanteaux, did you? Many thanks to Jennifer for jogging my memory on the $10 word.

One of my favorite thing's of Aidan's is a sweater and bonnet-cap someone knitted for him. It's just so precious, and the fact that it was handmade makes it all the more so. I love the set you made for your friend...I imagine it'll be especially nice for her to get something that's not pink, too. :)

I completely agree. I'm in the process of knitting two little boy sweaters for wee ones set to arrive in September. I think there's something so special about a handknit on a baby. And one will be my nephew so I'll get to see him all the time in the sweater! Speaking of...I need to ravelry those!